Introducing the KeeFox Firefox plugin which enable a user to seamlessly use their Keepass password database right inside Firefox. This nifty plugin makes a world of difference as it makes it that much easier to auto login, fill forms and much more without using the usual auto fill feature of Keepass, which as at times clumsy

Some highlighted features of this plugin according to the developers

• Free and open source (why is this good?)

• Automatic form filling

• Unobtrusive – KeeFox’s default settings are designed to ensure that you notice it when you need to but it won’t get in your way when you don’t want it to. There are options that will allow you to push KeeFox even further into the background (or make it grab your attention more forcefully if you are a little bit unobservant!)

• Instant log-in to your KeePass password entries straight from Firefox

• One-click save button to add new logins to KeePass automatically

• Supports multiple KeePass users (databases)

• Automatically filled forms can contain more than just a username and password field or even span across more than one page!

• “HTTP/protocol authentication” login support (* requires manual configuration in the KeePass entry)

• Automatically saves the “favicon” for websites to help you identify them next time you log in

• Automatically saves the “favicon” for websites to help you identify them next time you log in

Keepass is not installed by default on Ubuntu, however installing it is simply a few clicks away as it is already in the default Ubuntu repositories. Simply navigate to the Ubuntu Software centre or the Synaptic Package Manager and install it from there.

Note: Keefox is still under development so there may be slight bugs here and there.

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Installing the PIXMA MP250 Printer

1. Head over to the Canon driver page and download the printer driver (MP250 series IJ Printer Driver Ver. 3.20 for Linux (debian Packagearchive)) for the MP250 printer series

2. The download will be a tar.gz file, extract the contents of that file, and install the two packages (cnijfilter-common_3.20-1_i386.deb and cnijfilter-mp250series_3.20-1_i386.deb) contained in the extracted folder by double clicking them and following the on screen prompts.

3. Once installed, connect and turn the printer on, Ubuntu should recognize it and suggest the correct driver.

Installing the PIXMA MP250 Scanner

This part is slightly tricky as it involves installing the Sane backends, which is the system responsibly for scanning on Ubuntu.

1. Head over to the Canon driver page and download the scanner driver (MP250 series ScanGear MP Ver. 1.40 for Linux (debian Packagearchive)) for the MP250 printer series

2. Install the two .deb packages (scangearmp-common_1.40-1_i386.deb and scangearmp-mp250series_1.40-1_i386.deb)  contained with in the tar.gz downloaded package by double clicking them and following the on screen prompts.

3. Open a terminal and roll up your sleeves, this is where it gets slightly messy. In you terminal copy the following command:

sudo apt-get install libusb-dev build-essential

This will install some required packages for the scanner

4. Now we need to get the sane backend, we will do this via git. If you don’t already have git installed on your pc, run the following command in your terminal

sudo apt-get install git-core

5. Now we will need to fetch the sane backend by running the following command:

git clone git://git.debian.org/sane/sane-backends.git

This will download the sane backend into the sane-backend folder within your home folder.

6. Once the download is finished you will notice that it is an uncompiled package, meaning that it will have to be compiled manually. Don’t worry, as it is quite a simple process to compile and install a package. Firstly move into the downloaded folder:

cd sane-backends

7. No we can run the configuration of the package with the following command:

./configure –prefix=/usr –sysconfdir=/etc –localstatedir=/var

8. Once the configuration is complete we are now ready to compile the package by entering the following command into the terminal:

make

This process may take a while

9. Last step now is to install the package that was compiled in the previous step, note this last step requires the sudo (super user) command :

sudo make install

10. The scanner is now installed, however the permissions still need to be set. To set the permissions we will create a new file that will allow usage of the scanner. In the terminal, open Gedit:

sudo gedit

Onne Gedit is opened, copy and paste the following text into the empty gedit file

SUBSYSTEM==”usb”, ENV{DEVTYPE}==”usb_device”, MODE:=”0666″

SUBSYSTEM==”usb_device”,MODE:=”0666″

Save the file in the /etc/udev/rules.d/ directory, titled 40-scanner-permissions.rules

Your PIXMA MP250 scanner is now installed. You may now fire up the Xsane scanning utility and scan away.

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3. Easily Install OpenOffice.org 3.2 On Your Ubuntu PC

Installing OpenOffice.org on you Ubuntu System

1. first we need to remove the previous instance of OpenOffice.Org on your system, open your terminal and copy the following command, which will remove your current OpenOffice.Org installation

sudo apt-get remove openoffice*

2. Now we are ready to download the new version of OpenOffice.Org and install it, the following command will do both in one swoop

wget http://download.services.openoffice.org/files/stable/3.2.0/OOo_3.2.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz
tar -xvf OOo_3.2.0_LinuxIntel_install_en-US_deb.tar.gz
cd OOO320_m12_native_packed-1_en-US.9483/
sudo dpkg -iR DEBS/

OpenOffice.Org 3.2 is now installed on your system.

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Garth Johnson and Nick Glynn, two kind Ubuntu users have developed this application in the hopes that it will help Ubuntu users overcome the frustration of no longer having the ability to change the look and feel of their login screen.

You can get this utility for your Ubuntu PC from it’s project page here

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It in true open source spirit Gnomenu is extremely customizable, and there is an array of community contributed themes available at Gnome-Look.org. The Gnome Menu is essentially a panel applet that easily attaches to your gnome panel. Many tasks can be done via the Gnome menu, such as quickly opening your network connections to powering down your PC.

Furthermore, Gnomenu themes support transparency which greatly adds to the eye candy potential of this powerful main menu applet. The default theme is Lancelot (KDE main menu theme), but switching themes is quite simple as Gnomenu comes with a dozen more pre installed. Unfortunately however Gnomenu does not support drag and drop, therefore adding and removing items is not as intuitive as the default Gnome menu

Installing Gnomenu in Ubuntu is quite simple in fact, as it’s already in the Ubuntu repositories, simply copy the command bellow into your terminal and your done!

sudo apt-get install gnomenu

Once installed simply right click on your Gnome panel and add the Gnomenu aplet.

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Wine Suggestion for .exe files.

Any Linux user is well aware of the Wine project which adds .exe application compatibility to a Linux system, ie allowing Linux to run windows applications. However to a Linux newcomer, this probably is not known. Therefore klau3 over at Ubuntu Brainstorm suggested implementing a pop up window that informs a user that .exe files are not native to Linux and that a user will have to install Wine in order to run the .exe file.

While there is a decent open source software alternative for almost every Windows application, and it would be preferable to convince a user to switch to one of those alternatives. Nevertheless this would be a great idea in dispelling the myth that Linux is incapable of running a wide verity of software

Default Software configurations during installation

“Installation process should give people the choice to select some standard programms.
Someone using Thunderbird as mail client doesn’t need Evolution…
It is not about installing all kinds of programms during the installation process, but about selecting the most common programms easily.” explains klau3 who also posted this suggestions.

Again this is a great idea, however it would have to be implemented with care and tact if it is decided to be included in future Ubuntu releases. Ubuntu prides itself as an advanced yet easy to use and understand desktop operating system. Implementing a menu like this during installation will surely induce panic and confusion for anyone’s grandmother trying to install Ubuntu.

Install a simple compiz config manager by default

A very valid suggestion as most Ubuntu users will surely be using their Ubuntu machines with compiz desktop effects enabled, therefore it would be logical to provide a pre installed method to customize the desktop effects.

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While Gnome 3 will unfortunately not be ready in time for Ubuntu Lucid Lynx, it will most probably be included in Ubuntu’s 10.10 release later on this year.

If you are an early adopter and wish to test out this radical new desktop interface you can install the development packages and try it out first hand, bearing in mind that this is a development release, so expect bugs!

To install the Gnome the Shell:

1. Open a terminal and type the following command:

sudo apt-get build-dep gnome-shell

This will install the required dependencies to run Gnome 3 on your desktop

2. Install Gnome

sudo apt-get install gnome-shell

3. To activate Gnome 3

gnome-shell –replace

For user with an Intel graphics card, you may want to run the following to fix some issues with the Gnome 3 Interface:

export GNOME_SHELL_DISABLE_TFP=1

Remember that this a development release so it would probably be prudent to test this on a virtual machine, however it will give you a good idea of the innovation in store for mainstream Gnome based distributions.

The Gnome 3 Interface

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There are two ways of installing skype on your PC, The graphical user interface method, or a quick terminal method.

Graphical User Interface Method:

1. Head over to Skype.com and download the Skype .deb package for Ubuntu

2. Double click the downloaded package and follow the installation prompts

Via The Terminal

1. Download the Skype package

“wget http://www.skype.com/go/getskype-linux-beta-ubuntu-32″

2. Install the Skype package

“sudo dpkg -i skype-ubuntu-intrepid_2.1.0.81-1_i386.deb”

This will install the downloaded skype package onto your system

The Skype package also resides in the Medibuntu repository, if you would prefer to have the system’s software package manager deal with the skype installation and update it automatically, you may install it via the Synaptic Package Manager, you will, however, need to add the Medibuntu repository to your software sources.

1. Open a terminal and enter the following

“sudo wget –output-document=/etc/apt/sources.list.d/medibuntu.list http://www.medibuntu.org/sources.list.d/$(lsb_release -cs).list && sudo apt-get –quiet update && sudo apt-get –yes –quiet –allow-unauthenticated install medibuntu-keyring && sudo apt-get –quiet update”

This will add the Medibuntu Repository to your system and also it’s required GPG key

2. Install Skype:

“sudo apt-get install skype”

The system will download and install Skype, creating a launcher under Applications > Internet

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